“Arsenal were robbed” – pundit’s view as Alessia Russo grabs equaliser against Chelsea | OneFootball

Alessia Russo scored her 50th goal in the Barclays Women’s Super League when she struck in the 87th minute for Arsenal against Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium.

The London derby finished 1-1 with a significant amount of controversy – with the Gunners having the ball in the back of the net three times.

Stina Blackstenius thought she had equalised early in the second half, but it was ruled out for handball by referee Melissa Burgin, although television footage suggested it had not struck her hand.

Russo’s goal did stand – and then Frida Maanum seemed to have struck a late winner but it was given as offside, yet Niamh Charles looked to be playing everyone on.

“Really disappointed to actually not take three points,” Russo said afterwards. “I think we deserved to win and I think some of our goals that we scored were wrong decisions.

“I know the referees have a tough job, but that’s the high level we’re in now.

“I’m frustrated.”

Alessia Russo: I love scoring

She added: “We put in a really good performance today, something we need to take with us through the rest of the season. We’re so dominant here with our fans.

“I don’t think it was a handball. I haven’t seen the offside back. I’ll look at them both back and go from there.”

And she was pleased to pass the goalscoring milestone.

“I love scoring, especially here at the Emirates, so happy to do that but disappointed to not win today,” she concluded.

Arsenal were outstanding – Christiansen

And the pundits on Sky Sports’ live coverage of the match agreed that the Gunners should feel hard done by.

“They’ve been robbed today, Arsenal,” said Izzy Christiansen.

“The two other goals that they did manage to score that were disallowed probably on a different day would have been given,” said Rachel Corsie on Sky Sports.

“The response from Arsenal in the second half was outstanding, and I think they can feel very hard done by because it was a really poor performance from the referee,” Christiansen also commented.